what range is the most G’s a human can survive? what about before blacking out? what about suits? how do they work and what’s the most G that one can survive in these suits?
i have heard 6 for no suits and my bro says 50 with a suit… that 50 sounds a little out there.
thanks.
8 or 9 is what a person can function in with a suit and good seat and a bit more for short periods.
83 g’s has been survived on a rocket sled by Captain Eli L. Beeding.
IIRC, he was in pretty bad shape for a little while afterwards; temporary retinal detachment, collapsed lungs etc…
Eighty-three times one hundred eighty pounds. Fourteen thousand, nine hundred eighty pounds. Over seven tons. Boggle’s my mind.
Peace,
mangeorge
It’s quite common for roller coasters to briefly subject their occupants to 3 or 4 g’s.
When exactly, a person passes out does vary somewhat, but grey-out starts at around 5 or 6. There’s no question that a healthy human being should be able to survive 6 g’s - that person just most likely won’t be conscious to “enjoy” the experience.
Car accidents are what subjects the average person to the greatest g force. At around 20 g’s there’s this irritating tendency for the aorta to rip free of the heart, leading to rapid death from massive internal bleeding. Sudden g forces also lead to internal organs bashing against things like the rib cage, leading to internal injuries. A more gradual acceleration could get you up to that g-loading with causing internal damage.
The suits work more or less like this: the reason you pass out from high g’s is that your heart can’t pump enough blood up to your head to keep you concious. The suits put pressure on the lower limbs, squeezing the blood out of the legs and back up into the upper body. This relieves some of the stress on the heart, which gives it the help it needs to keep the blood flowing up into your head.
You can also build some tolerance to g forces, thereby increasing your ability to withstand them - up to a point. Stunt and military pilots both undergo some conditioning to work up their tolerance for g’s. Basically, they start by brief sessions under g’s, then gradually increase the amount of time they’re subjected to the forces involved.
I don’t know the upper limit of the suits.
It depends if you’re talking about sustained or instantaneous Gs. I believe the Guinness Book lists the highest instantaneous G-force survived as somewhere over 100G, by a race car driver who lived through his car smacking head-on into a wall (massive injuries, but he recovered). I’ll have to look up the record when I get home.
On one episode of The Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin is taken for a flight in a USAF jet. They do several aerobatic tricks that pull up to 7Gs with no problem. Steve blacked out when they pulled 8.9, the pilot didn’t though.
These people who provide joy flight jet sorties say that combat pilots regularly exceed 6Gs and that they exceed 8Gs at air shows.